


Spider House

by Lapwing_1835



Category: Death Note, Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga), Death Note: Another Note, Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Kira (Death Note), Creepy, Fever Dreams, Gen, Halloween, Horror, One-Sided Amane Misa/Yagami Light, Psychological Horror, Surreal, Top Yagami Light
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:28:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28283997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lapwing_1835/pseuds/Lapwing_1835
Summary: Light Yagami is normal. He might possibly be the most normal person that you've ever met. He's kind, too. Very kind.You blink.And suddenly, he's torn off your limbs.
Relationships: Amane Misa/Yagami Light, Beyond Birthday/Reader, Yagami Light/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Spider House

When you enter, you are greeted by a young man.

The first thought you think about him, is that he is normal. You are almost surprised by his normality. He feels so familiar that you feel as though you have known him your whole life, even though you have just met him.

The young man introduces himself as Light.

He invites you into his sitting room for a cup of tea. You follow him. You don't look around as you do, because you are afraid that the house will not feel as familiar as Light. So instead, you look at him.

The way he smiles at you makes you uncomfortable, or at least you think you are uncomfortable, because your heart is beating very fast and you feel a flush rise to you cheeks, and those are signs of being uncomfortable, right? After all, it's not like you're attracted to him. That would be absurd. Though if you were attracted to anyone, you would be attracted to him.

You don't like that thought, so you interrupt him, and ask if you can go to the bathroom. He agrees, politely, as you knew he would. Even though you don't remember sitting down, you stand up, and walk to the bathroom. It is the first door you see. You knew it would be, because you don't want to explore the rest of your house, and you don't know why.

You tell yourself that it is because you don't want to be away from Light, not because you're afraid of the house, because of course you're not, and now your possible attraction is a shield, delving into a small fear to get away from a bigger fear.

When you go to dry your hands, you realize there are no towels. Part of you doesn't want to search for them, but you ignore that part, because it would be ridiculous not to search for towels. It is as if you pretend that everything's normal, that it will be, even when it's obviously not. Wait, what did you think? Of course, everything's normal. You didn't think anything.

When you open the bathroom cabinet, you see a boy. He has pale skin, so pale that you can almost see his veins, and they look almost blue. His fingers look almost abnormally long, and his hair is black and unkempt and it looks more like a mop than anything else.

You back away. He unfolds himself, and crawls out of the cabinet. You think there might be a spider in his hair, but you don't look too closely, because if you do then you might get confirmation. He reminds you of a spider himself, in fact, or some kind of insect, in the way he exited the cabinet as soon as you opened it, trying to scurry away as soon as he is seen.

You feel a strange sort of revulsion towards him, the kind of revulsion that stems from pity, when someone is so unfortunate that you don't want to think about them because they remind you that that sort of fortune can exist in the world, and you feel a strange sort of pity towards him, the kind of pity that stems from revulsion, because you are quite certain that everyone else in the worlds feels the same sort of revulsion that you do.

He makes you uncomfortable, so you turn around, leave the bathroom, and walk back to Light.

'You have a boy in your bathroom cabinet,' you inform him.

'Oh, yes,' Light agrees, 'That is L. He is quite antisocial, so pay him no mind.'

You nod, and the two of you pass on. You have a conversation with him, and although you understand everything he says, as soon as you respond to it, you forget what he said. This is okay.

You blink, and you are standing outside the bathroom door again. You walk back to Light. You say to Light, 'You have a boy in your bathroom cabinet.'

Light shakes his head, with a fond smile. 'No, I don't. What are you talking about?'

You don't have an answer for him, so you say nothing. After some time has passed, it starts getting dark, even though you had no idea what time it was before it did. It is as if the concept of time came into existence when it was convenient.

Light says, 'It is getting late. You should be getting to bed.'

You nod, and agree with him. He stands up, takes your hand, and leads you up the stairs, and you don't understand why you were afraid of them before because everything feels safe and bright with him around.

He leads you to your bedroom. It looks warm and inviting. On one side of the room, there is a desk, on top of which there is a monitor, and on the other side of the room, there is a bed. You go and lay down.

Light tucks you in. It is not in a romantic sense. If he were to kiss your forehead, it would not be in a romantic sense. If he were to kiss your lips, it would not even be in a romantic sense. He does not kiss you. You wish he would.

He turns off the light as he leaves the room, and then you go to sleep. You wake up in the middle of the night, and you abruptly wish you had not, because now the room seems very cold. But you are awake, so you sit up in bed and look around.

The boy, the one that Light might have referred to as L, is sitting, no, crouching, on the chair in front of your desk. He is looking at you. You decide to wave at him, and feel quite foolish after doing so. He just stares at you. After a while, you decide to ask him, 'Are you L?'

'Yes,' he says, and his voice seems to fit him. It sounds dead. And although it seems illogical to describe a voice as dead, that is how it sounds to you, and that is how he seems to you as well. 'I am L.'

You think you should probably introduce yourself too, so you do.

L says, 'I know that.'

You ask him if he doesn't have a room of his own. He says that he doesn't have a room during the night, because his shadow lives in it then.

Suddenly, you feel quite tired, and you are glad of it, so you lay down again and go to sleep.

The next day is normal, barring one incident during the afternoon. You wake up, go downstairs, and eat breakfast that has been laid on the table for you. Light is not there, and you ignore the disappointment you feel because of that, because you are not attracted to him.

After you eat breakfast, you read a book that you think Light must have left for you. It is a book on the most gruesome serial killers throughout history. You find it entertaining.

That afternoon, you go back to your room. Someone is sitting in your chair, though it is not L. He is a boy, almost as normal as Light, and he has reddish-brown hair and is wearing a pair of goggles like they are glasses. He is also playing what appears to be a computer game on the monitor.

You watch him for a while, and then he spins the chair around to face you. 'Hi th3r3,' he says, 'My n4m3 is M4tt. You 5houldn't h4v3 com3 h3r3 without Light. It's 4lright, though, I won't t3ll anyon3.' 

'Oh,' you say. 'I'm sorry. I won't do it again.' 

He shrugs, offhand and carefree. '3h, w3'r3 4ll cool. You'r3 lucky you r4n into m3, though, in5t34d of 4nyon3 3l53. Lik3 B. You don't w4nt to run into B. W4tch out for B, ok4y?'

You nod. 'I'm sorry, again,' you say, because you really don't want to get in trouble. Matt shrugs again in reply.

'Should I go back downstairs?' you ask. 

He shrugs for the third time. You think that he probably likes shrugging. 'I dunno, m4n. Do wh4t you w4nt, I gu355.' He turns back to your monitor, and starts a new level on his game. 'Though, y34h, I gu355 it'd prolly b3 b35t for you if you w3nt down5t4ir5.' 

You nod. 'I am sorry,' you say again. You don't think it'll make a difference. You turn around, and go back downstairs. You re-read the book Light left for you until he shows up in the entranceway. 

He smiles at you. 

You smile back at him.

'Hi there,' you say breathlessly, like a schoolgirl with a crush, except you are not a schoolgirl and you do not have a crush. He comes and sits next to you.

'Hello,' he returns, kindly.

'I missed you today,' you say. He reaches out, and rests his hand on your shoulder. It is quite warm. You aren't upset with him anymore. Were you ever upset with him?

'I missed you too,' he says, kindly. He is kind. He is a kind person. He is not attracted to you. You wish he was. It would be flattering. 

'Anyway, it's time for dinner,' he says. You start eating, even though you don't know where the food came from. 

'Oh, yes, I forgot to tell you,' Light says as the two of you are finishing. 'Don't go upstairs without me. Once I've brought you upstairs, you can stay there, but once you've gone downstairs, don't go upstairs again without me.' 

You merely nod, silently. You think that would've been something that it would've been helpful to know before, but Light did apologize. Didn't he? It sounded like an apology. It's not like you're angry at him. You're too attracted to him for that. 

When the two of you have finished, he stands up, walks over to you, and pulls you from your chair by the hand. His hand is warm in yours. You find yourself thinking about L, even though you don't want to think of him, because you like thinking about Light much more. You think that L's hand would be cold. You are glad you are not holding L's hand. 

He leads you to your room, and tucks you in, just like last night. He does not kiss you. You really, really, really want him to kiss you. 

He turns off the light as he leaves the room, and then you go to sleep. You wake up again in the middle of that night. This does not surprise you. You have only slept in this house once, so it makes more sense that what happened before would happen again. 

You sit up. You don't want to look over at your chair, to see if L is there again, and you don't know why. It isn't like L had done any harm. 

You hear a voice. The voice is L's, or it sounds just as dead as L's. The voice says, 'Oh, hello, there. Are you awake?' 

You turn your head to look at the speaker. The speaker is L. There is an odd sort of relief in that, since L is probably one of the milder malevolent forc-

What? There aren't any malevolent forces in this house. What are you thinking? You think it's haunted or something? That's ridiculous. Stop thinking.

You smile slightly at L, and nod. 'I'm awake,' you say. 

L grins, then, a bit too wide, and it looks- odd. Very odd. You've only seen L a couple times, but he does not strike you as the type of person to grin. 

'Are you L?' you ask him. 

'One could say that I am,' the boy who looks exactly like L answers.

'One could say anything,' you argue. 'I could say that I was L. It wouldn't make me L.' 

Possibly-L blinks at you for a moment, and then he laughs, sounding genuinely amused. It makes you quite sure that he is not L. He has a nice laugh. It is a full laugh, like the way one might laugh when exchanging tales with old friends around a fireplace, but it's not uproarious either, not obnoxious, it's just- nice. It makes you feel warm inside. Everything about him seems warm. 

'I'm not exactly... not L,' he says haltingly. 'I'm almost a clone of him. If I were a clone of him, then I would be him, because to be someone's clone is to be exactly like them is to be them. But I'm a bit rougher around the edges than he is. Whoever made me didn't take as much time with me as they did with him.'

You remember something L said to you, near the end of your meeting last night, but you were tired, so you don't know if L actually said it. Nonetheless, you ask, 'Are you L's shadow?

Not-L looks surprised, for the second time that night, and you feel proud of yourself - he doesn't seem like one to surprise easily. 'Who told you that?'

'L did,' you answer. 

'Oh,' Not-L says. 'Well... I suppose he's right. I am his shadow.' 

'Why aren't you in his room?' you ask. You remember L saying that his shadow stays in his room at night. 

You blink, and you are suddenly a moment back in time. Not-L is saying, 'I am his shadow,' again. 

A voice whispers in your ear, 'That is not a good question to ask. Do not ask that question.' It sounds like Light's voice. You shake your head slightly, as if to clear it. Not-L is looking curiously at you. 

You think that if you were to hold his hand, it would probably be warm, which would mean that he would not be L, because you think that L's hand would be cold. 

You ask him, 'Could I hold your hand?' 

He grins again, then nods, and unfolds himself from your chair. You are suddenly aware that you just made a horrible, horrible decision, because Not-L is horrifying. His limbs are all weird angles and he moves improbably oddly. That is a good word for it - improbable. He is improbable. He should not exist. 

You realize, suddenly, that you had no idea what he meant, when he'd said that he was rougher around the edges. You do now. He is an abomination. 

He moves towards you - walk is too commonplace a word for how he moves. 

'Wait, no, stop, please,' you plead, scrambling away from him to the corner of your bed, pulling the blankets around you as if they can protect you from him. Light tucked them around you, after all, so maybe they can. You suddenly wish you were holding L's hand. Light isn't protecting you - why isn't Light protecting you? - but maybe L can. 'I didn't mean it. Please don't touch me. Please.' 

Not-L smiles crookedly, with too many teeth, and crawls on the bed, somehow a lot more spider-like than L. You need to get away from him, but you can only shrink more into the corner. His body moves like a contortionist's, the limbs all at wrong angles, everything about him is wrong wrong wrong. He reaches out a hand, 

And you shriek, high-pitched in the back of your throat, an instinctive expression of pure terror. Your heart is beating faster than it ever has, your throat has closed up, and you feel almost light-headed. 

He takes your hand, holds it, and settles himself cross-legged on the bed next to you. He does nothing else. After a minute, you open your eyes, even though you don't remember closing them, and you absently realize that you can breath again.

Not-L's hand is warm, and firm, and steady, and remarkably nice to hold. Maybe nicer than Light's. But it's wrong, all wrong, and you suddenly wish that his hand wasn't nice to hold, because the inconsistency is so, so jarring, that you feel like you are going to throw up. 

You wait, staring at him with wide eyes, suddenly unable to move, waiting for him to get bored and be done with you. 

He does not let go of your hand. He rubs one of his thumbs over your knuckles, back and forth and back and forth, and it's so comforting and you're so overwrought that you just want to go to sleep right there. You became suddenly tired last night, so you expect to suddenly become tired again, but you do not, so you can't sleep. 

Finally, he speaks. He says, 'Matt told me you came here without Light. That's not okay.' 

You are panicked again, suddenly, and you try to explain, that Light had forgotten to tell you, that you didn't know, that you didn't mean to, that you'll never do it again. 

Not-L looks offhandedly at you, like you're a bit of an idiot. 'What's that? Light never forgets anything. If he didn't tell you, it was on purpose. He must've wanted you to get in trouble.' 

He shrugs, but it is an exaggerated sort of shrug, a sort of shrug that shouldn't be possible if all his bones are in the right places. It repulses you. Not-L rolls his eyes. 'I don't understand him, honestly. I'm always upfront about my intentions. Oh well, I suppose it's none of my business. I'm just the security guard.' 

There is something so wrong about that idea, the idea that Light could have wanted you to get in trouble, that you have to protest. Light is normal.

'Light wouldn't do that,' You say weakly. 'Light wouldn't get me in trouble. Light's good. Light's normal. He wouldn't do something like that.' 

Not-L laughs, incredibly amused, certainly at your expense. Oh well, if he thinks Light is a bad person, that's his loss. Light didn't have dinner with him. Light had dinner with you. You know better than Not-L, at least about this. He's just trying to trick you. 

Not-L finishes laughing - it felt like it went on for an absurdly long time, an hour, maybe - and then he reaches out and takes your hand again. He clamps down punishingly hard, his nails digging into your palm, and it is not nice at all anymore to hold his hand, and you are glad of it. It makes it a bit less horrifying. 

He brings you to the attic. You don't remember the journey, and you don't know how he brought you there, but you remember that he did - that there was a journey, at least. 

'I'm sorry,' he says, looking down at you, and not sounding sorry at all. He has tied you up, using chains that are attached to the wall. 'But you have to learn not to break the rules.' He disappears. After a period of time, in which you bury your face in your knees, and you do not cry, you look up again. 

There is another boy, chained to the wall across from you. His skin is paler than L's and Not-L's, somehow. He has white hair, though he is definitely not a man. He is in no more than his late teens, you think. 

He is either asleep or unconscious. You do not call out to him, because if he did not wake up, he would be unconscious, and you do not want to think about why he would be unconscious. 

He seems to fit, up here, in the attic, bleached by the lack of light. You wonder if you will look like him, one day. You don't want to look like him. 

You don't know how long you stay there. It has to be at least... two weeks, you think. Though if you found out that it was several years, that also wouldn't surprise you. 

You are visited, sometimes, by L and by Not-L. You never mistake L for Not-L, but you often mistake Not-L for L, and realize halfway through a conversation who he is when he grins. That is a concrete difference between Not-L and L - L never smiles, but Not-L often seems to have a permanent, too-wide smile. 

You talk to L, when he visits, because you've decided that you don't mind L as much as you first thought you did, but you never talk to Not-L, if you know who he is. However, L tells you, once, that he thinks Not-L has a soft spot for you. That flatters you, even though you don't like to admit it, so from then on, sometimes you pretend that you don't realize that Not-L isn't L, even when you do, and you talk to him anyway. 

One time, as you're talking to Not-L, who doesn't know that you know that he's not L, he asks you, 'Would you let me kill you? Theoretically, I mean.'

You consider the question for a moment, then shake your head. 'No, I wouldn't,' you say. You think this question might have scared you, before, but- you've been here so long, and in that time, Not-L has asked you so many disconcerting questions that it barely registers. 

Not-L pouts at you. 'But you liked that book on killers that I left for you.' 

That's enough to make you slip out of your fugue, and look over at Not-L. Fortunately, he's curled up, so he can almost pass for L. L looks so pleasant, compared to him. 'What do you mean?' 

Not-L smiles. 'You didn't know? Yeah, I left it for you. You must've liked it-- you re-read it twice.' 

That's a horrifying thought, that's horrifying, to think that Not-L had been in the kitchen-- the kitchen is light and warm and something like him shouldn't be allowed there. You shrug, and you suddenly feel like you're about to pass out. 'Yeah, you can kill me,' you hear yourself saying, and then you lose consciousness. 

Another time, Not-L shows up as L is visiting you. L is leaning against your shoulder. You have found that L likes touching you, somehow, when you're talking with him, and you are so very lonely, up here, that you don't mind it. 

You haven't seen Not-L and L in the same room, before, so you are curious how they will react. He walks up to L, and crouches in front of him. He punches him in the face. 

You blink, and both of them are gone. 

Then, for the first time, the boy chained across from you wakes up. He glances around blearily. 'M?' He calls out. 'M? I need some water, M.' You wonder why it seems like everyone has letters for names. The boy keeps calling, for a moment, then, when it appears that no one is coming, he looks over at you. 'Hi,' he says, his voice sounding weak, scratchy and congested. You say it back. The two of you talk, for a minute or so, but he keeps trailing off, or half-falling asleep during the conversation. After a while, he is unconscious again. 

A while after that, Not-L is in front of you again. He says, 'I never told you my name, you know.' You don't think he needs a response to continue, so you don't say anything. 'My name is B.' 

Now, B has let you know that he's not L, which means you're not obligated to respond. He's quiet for a minute, then says, 'I have to let you go now. It's the rules.' You feel impossibly relieved. You can't believe it. He does that odd shrugging motion again, the one where he rolls his shoulders, and it still repulses you. 'I'll miss you, you know.' He reaches out, touching you for the first time since the night he was in your room - he brushes his knuckles against your cheek. You shy away from him. He frowns, then leans closer to you. He looks like he is about to kiss you. You do not want to kiss him. 

You want to kiss Light. 

The thought surprises you. You haven't thought about Light at all, this whole time, and you suddenly feel guilty for that. You wonder if he thought of you. He probably did. That's a kind thing to do. Light is a kind person. 

B kisses you. His lips feel like the skin of rotten fruit, overly sweet, putrid, and moldy, threatening to rupture at any moment. You close your eyes,

And wake up in your bedroom. It is morning. You can see the sun shining through your blinds. It has been so, so long since you saw the sun. After a period of time, in which you bury your face in your knees, and you cry, you look up again. 

You go downstairs for breakfast. Light is sitting in the chair by the window, drinking a cup of tea. He looks up, and sets the cup down as you enter. You rush into his arms. You think you are shaking. After a pause, he hugs you back.

'What's wrong?' he asks. 'Did you have a nightmare?' 

'A n-nightmare?' you ask between sobs, and that is how you realize you are crying again. 'Didn't you miss me?'

'Miss you?' Light asks. 'You mean while you were sleeping? I was asleep myself, silly, how could I have missed you?' 

'W-what are you talking about?' you ask. 'Do- do you mean you tucked me in yesterday?'

'Yes, of course,' he says, like you're being a bit ridiculous. That is the first indicator you get that Light might not be normal. It's not normal to be so unaffected when someone one cares about is sobbing in one's arms. 

You shake the thought off, and smile hesitantly at him. He smiles back. Slowly, you get off him, and blush to realize that you were basically sitting in his lap. You eat breakfast with him. Everything feels so normal, that the attic feels a million miles away, far away from this table and the sunlight and Light's cool hands. Light's hands are cool, now, compared to B's, but you really don't want to think about B right now. 

That afternoon, Light leaves again. You don't want him to, but when you say so, he looks at you like you're being foolish, and you really don't want Light to think you're foolish, so you say,

'No, nevermind. I'll be fine on my own until dinner.'

He smiles at you again, after that, so you're confident you said the right thing. 

You are terrified by something, that afternoon. You don't know what terrifies you, or maybe nothing terrifies you at all and you just miss Light, but either way you run into the rest of the house, calling for Light. You find yourself in front of his bedroom door. You are not scared at all, anymore, only curious. You push open the door, and, 

There is a girl in Light's room. You are not jealous of this girl, because although she does get to be in Light's bed, all her limbs are separated from her torso, artfully arranged around her. It would be ridiculous to be jealous of her, so you are not jealous of her. 

'What are you doing here?' you ask the girl. She is wearing a placid smile. 

'This is how Light likes me,' the girl says, and giggles quietly to herself. 'This is how you will become.' You cover your ears with your hands, but you suddenly realize that you never did dry your hands. You realize this because they are dripping, because water is dripping down your hands and so is your skin and your flesh and your blood, it's dripping onto the floor, and you suddenly become irrationally afraid that you will lose your hands.

'Stop making a mess on the floor,' Light says. 'Go dry your hands.' But you can't, you can't because your whole body's melting onto the floor.

Suddenly, B is standing next to you. He says, 'It'll be alright. Come back with me to the attic. We'll be safe from him there.' But you hate the attic, you hate it, so you shake your head frantically. Light smiles at you, and he does not look normal at all. 

'Do you want to take her place?' Light asks, gesturing to the girl on the bed. The girl suddenly starts shaking violently, her torso squirming around on the bed, and it upsets you, so you look over at Light. 

'Would you kiss me?' you ask Light. 

Light smiles, leans forward, and kisses you. Kissing him is not at all like kissing B. It is kind, and coaxing, and insistent. You don't ever want to stop. 

'I love you,' you say to Light. 

'I know. Do you want to take her place?' he asks again. 

You nod without hesitation. The next day, you wake up on Light's bed instead of the girl. Light gives you a sip of tea. He smiles at you again. You like Light's smiles. They make you comfortable. You could stay like this forever. You will stay like this forever. 

L and B don't visit you, anymore. Sometimes, you miss them.


End file.
